BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Tuesday, March 16, 2004
WHAT KERRY SAID. You've got
to feel sorry this morning for Boston Globe reporter Patrick
Healy. It was his transcription of a March 8 speech by John Kerry at
a fundraising event that led to a week of controversy over the
senator's alleged assertion that "foreign leaders" had told him they
hoped he would beat George W. Bush. Healy was the pool reporter,
which means that the entire media relied on his transcript. And now
it turns out that mistakes
were made.
It was an easy mistake to make, and
I'm sure Healy is unhappy about it - make that very unhappy.
The larger question is whether the corrected transcript changes the
meaning of what Kerry said. I don't think it does. But unfortunately,
and characteristically, the Kerry campaign is using the error to back
away from this mini-controversy.
Here's an excerpt from
a
Glen Johnson piece in
today's Globe:
A Globe reporter was
present for the fund-raiser as a representative of the newspapers
covering the campaign. The reporter initially sent out a report to
his colleagues saying that Kerry had told the crowd, "I've met
foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly but, boy,
they look at you and say, 'You gotta win this, you gotta beat this
guy, we need a new policy' - things like that."
Yesterday the reporter listened
again to the tape, previously transcribed on a bus and campaign
airplane, and said Kerry actually said: "I've been hearing it,
I'll tell ya. The news, the coverage in other countries, the news
in other places. I've met more leaders who can't go out and say it
all publicly but, boy, they look at you and say, 'You gotta win
this, you gotta beat this guy, we need a new policy' - things like
that."
Kerry never used the term
"foreign" or, as some accounts have reported, said he had "met
with" foreign leaders. His comments were preceded by a statement
from Milton Ferrell, Kerry's Florida fund-raising chairman,
voicing foreign displeasure with the current president. Ferrell
said, "Europeans and elsewhere, they're counting on the American
people. They hate Bush, but they know we're going to get rid of
him."
Based on that context, I'd say that
Healy got Kerry's meaning right, even if he didn't capture his exact
words. But the Los Angeles Times reports
today that the Kerry campaign is now trying to back away from the
controversy. Matea Gold writes:
[T]he campaign
said Monday that the Globe's clarification demonstrates some
ambiguity about what Kerry meant. His reference to "more leaders,"
said Kerry's spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter, "could mean anybody."
The media's repeated references to "foreign leaders" allowed
critics to suggest he was talking about heads of state. "He was
misquoted," said Cutter. "Had he not been misquoted, this wouldn't
be a story."
Really? Kerry has been pounded at
over this miniature issue. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell, who
doesn't normally get involved in partisan politics, challenged
Kerry to name the foreign
leaders he'd supposedly met with who support his candidacy. Yet Kerry
did not really contest the accuracy of Healy's transcript, at least
not until Sunday - and then, according to this
account in the New York
Times, he challenged something that Healy actually got
right:
Mr. Kerry said on Sunday
that he had used the word "heard," not "met," prompting Mr. Healy
to revisit the recording. On Monday, he sent out a corrected
transcript, clarifying that the quotation actually began, "I've
met more leaders who can't go out and say it all publicly."
Here's what White House spokeswoman
Suzy DeFrancis told the LA Times:
The White House, when
asked about the Globe reporter's clarification of the original
remarks, said Kerry should have denounced the reported comments
earlier if he had been misquoted.
"It seems to us that Sen. Kerry
has affirmed the quote by his own reaction to it," said Suzy
DeFrancis, a White House spokeswoman." He's had plenty of time to
disavow it if he didn't agree with it … so I think he was
clearly probably describing foreign leaders."
I can't disagree.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. "Al
Sharpton yesterday conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to
John F. Kerry ... He now says he is close to signing a contract to
host a radio or cable television talk show." - Boston
Globe,
3/16/04
posted at 10:59 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
